Six-shilling coin auctioned for £460,000

Published on 30/06/2006 00:58

A 14TH-CENTURY gold coin found in a field in southern England by a man with a metal detector fetched £460,000 at auction yesterday - a world record price for any British coin.

The Edward III "double leopard" - worth six shillings when struck in 1344 - was bought at Spink's in London for the Isle of Man coin fund Avarae Global Coins.

Ian Goldbart, the managing director of dealers A H Baldwin & Sons, who made the purchase, said: "It seems like a lot of money - but when you consider you can pay 40 million for a painting and eight or nine million for a house, maybe it's good value. After all, it is one of the rarest and most magnificent coins ever minted.

"I only had to bid once - right at the end, when everybody else had stopped."

The price eclipsed the previous world auction record, established in 2004 for Britain's first gold penny, struck for King Coenwulf of Mercia (796-821). That fetched 230, 000.

The location of the discovery of the "double leopard" is being kept secret to prevent the site being invaded by treasure hunters.

The coin, depicting the king and two leopards, was only issued for a few months and is so rare that only two others are known - found together by schoolchildren on the River Tyne in 1857.